Reports | Former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu arrested over Barca-gate controversy
ESPN and Goal have reported that after raids on Barcelona’s offices have seen four former members of club’s board including former president Josep Maria Bartomeu arrested. The report has revealed that this comes after fresh investigations into Barca-gate despite the case being a year old.
With the Barcelona presidential elections just around the corner, it has seen many fans and critics excited to see who replaces Josep Maria Bartomeu after he resigned last year. However, reports from Goal and ESPN have revealed that the former Barcelona president has been arrested after a fresh raid on the Camp Nou offices. The reports have further revealed that Bartomeu isn’t the only one with his adviser Jaume Masferrer, the club's CEO Oscar Grau and head of legal services Roman Gomez Ponti also arrested.
This, reportedly, comes in light of fresh new investigations into the Barca-gate scandal that rocked the club more than a year ago. It was alleged, at the time, that Barcelona, under Bartomeu, paid a company to smear former players, presidential candidates and even current players. While the club denied the allegations then, there was a raid at the Camp Nou offices in 2020 and another now with the police stepping up their investigations.
ESPN has further reported that the police did so to look for documents related to their investigations with them reportedly looking for details related to I3 Ventures. That is the PR company that was paid to clear Bartomeu’s name while disparaging the reputations of former players amongst others.
:information_source: Official statement from FC Barcelona
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) March 1, 2021